1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunication device and system with a function of noticing a call priority as well as a method of noticing a call priority in the telecommunication system, and more particularly to telephone device and system with a function of noticing a call priority as well as a method of noticing a call priority in the telephone system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some of the mobile telephones have a memory function of storing past call histories with caller's telephone numbers by utilizing call identification numbers included in call set-up signals. The past call histories include first type calls, to which receivers have been responded during the call, and second type calls, to which receivers have not yet been responded during the call. The first type calls may also be referred to as “concurrently responded call”. The second type calls may also be referred to as “concurrently non-responded call”.
Some of the mobile telephones have a function of storing sets of call identification numbers and corresponding call times, so as to display the past call histories along with the call identification numbers and corresponding call times. The past call histories include informations about “when and who have called” with the above type of the calls, for example, “past responded call” and “past non-responded call”. Those past call histories seem useful for post-replying to the past non-responded call.
The conventional telephone devices with the function of displaying the past call histories have the following issues.
A first issue of the conventional telephone devices is that the current call information is displayed without any priority data or information, for which reason the user is unable to recognize the priority of the current call.
A second issue of the conventional telephone devices is that the past call histories including the past non-responded calls are displayed without any respective priority data or information, for which reason the user is unable to recognize the respective priorities of the past non-responded calls.
Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 11-252644 discloses another conventional telephone device having additional functions for adding the priority to the call. This telephone device has a first function of selecting one of the priority levels and a second function of adding the selected priority level to a control message. The caller selects the priority level which indicates the degree of emergency and sets the selected priority level to the call setup signal before sending a call to a target telephone. The receiver is able to recognize the priority of the received call with reference to a displayed priority information or with reference to a calling pattern such as a calling tone or a calling sound which corresponds to each of the priority levels.
The above other conventional telephone device is, however, disadvantageous in the following viewpoints. The above addition of the priority to the call setup signal needs to change the standardized regulation. The priority depends on the decision of the caller or sender, but is independent from the priority level standard of the receiver. It is possible that the receiver considers that the call with the high priority level given by the sender or caller is not-important. It is also possible that the receiver considers that the call with the low priority level given by the sender or caller is important.
Further disadvantage of the above conventional telephone is that the notice of the priority does not respond to the change to the priority standard by the receiver side.
In the above circumstances, the development of a novel telephone device free from the above problems is desirable.